Global Rankings of the Most Attractive BPO Destinations

Based on global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney’s Global Services Location Index (GSLI) latest edition, the Philippines ranked 7th (with a previous rank of 8th) most attractive offshoring destination. I believe this is based on several weighted factors and the three main categories are: financial attractiveness, people and skills availability and business environment.

In the financial attractiveness aspect, I believe BPO employees are still in the lower end, based on salaries being paid compared to our competitors. Chatting with a friend from Hyderabad, India, she receives INR 18,000 basic pay plus allowances and a carpool incentive working as a CSR for a known U.S. company. In comparison, a typical CSR in the Philippines in general earns around PHP 15,000 basic pay plus meager allowances. In my opinion, we are underpaid but we can still maintain good quality of work.

For people and skills availability, I think we are facing a major problem in this aspect as the demand for BPO workers increase but the talents needed for is still short to satisfy the need. The government has a soft stance to fill this need as TESDA, I believe is not reaching as far as it could to properly train the potential workforce. This is evidenced by the emergence of call trainings offered by unscrupulous businesses that promises to train but for a high fee.

In general, I can say business environment is average as different BPO locations in the Philippines are still on its way to become competitive. The stabilty of the Philippine economy I think is still a big question mark for me, as the current government administration in her SONA, continues to lie about the current economic situation of the Philippines.

Placing a respectable 7th in the index only shows that we can do more. I believe the Filipino can be the best, with proper education and knowledge. A really bright future is still ahead and I urge my BPO friends to press on and share what they have learned to aspiring BPO workers and together we will succeed despite of the challenges.